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A lot of the times, new business pop up and their owners are so excited about this new venture that they think they need to see quick growth on social media. This mindset may lead them to make some rash decisions such as buying followers or spending too much on ads. And it may look impressive to investors to have gained over 1,000 followers in under a month, but savvy investors know there's more to it than that. And the day-to-day consumer probably won't even pay attention.

Let's get this out of the way right at the front: Do not buy followers. No one knows for sure, but it's estimated that about 15% of social media accounts are bots. That's 15% of about 3 billion. So, if you had every bot on Twitter following you, it would bring your follower count up to about 450 million. Sounds impressive, right? It does right up until you realize that bots aren't buying your products or telling any real people about you. You could make the case that the high number of foll…

Is Stargate Universe LOST... in space?

With Syfy's attempt at rebranding, it would be no surprise if they looked toward some of the most popular TV shows of this era as inspiration for their new lineup. Of course, one of the best things they did before they changed their name was Battlestar Galactica. This is a clear inspiration for the darker turn that Stargate has taken, but I wonder how much they've drawn from another popular TV show: LOST.
Don't get me wrong. Stargate Universe is still a completely original series with clear ties to the original franchise. But any writer worth his salt draws some inspiration from the shows they love the best. I honestly have no idea what SGU's writers watch in their spare time, but if they're up at all on any sort of TV trends as they should be, then they'll be hooked to the screen whenever LOST comes on. I'm not saying it's intentional, I'm not saying it's a cop-out, I'm not even saying it's a bad thing for them to do, all I'm saying is there are some similarities. I'm going to get into some spoilers for both LOST and Stargate Universe, so after you click the Spoiler Button, we'll go into some of these similarities.

A tragic "accident" displaces the group and turns out not to be so accidental. It takes a few seasons for LOST to get there, but after just a few episodes of SGU we start suspecting that Rush wanted to get onto the Destiny and maybe even wanted to strand the rest of the group there. I wouldn't be surprised if we found out that Rush leaked the location of the Icarus base to the Lucian Alliance so that he would have an excuse to evacuate the base into wherever the ninth chevron took them. In LOST we start finding out after a few seasons that some big-wigs on the mainland have not only been looking for the island, but intentionally placed the characters on the plane that crashed there.

Survival against both odds and perceived capability. In Stargate Universe we see a motley crew of unqualified people surviving on the Destiny despite having no idea what the ship is capable of or having the means by which to survive long-term. In LOST there is obviously a plane-load of people who have no idea how to survive on a remote island. As a surgeon, Jack is the only one who seems qualified to help them survive, and as a medic, TJ, although unsure of her abilities, is the only one qualified to treat wounds on the Destiny. On the Island, people start getting healed of their wounds and cured of their infirmities. On the Destiny, we've seen an uncanny ability for the ship to understand the survival needs of its passengers and help however it can, through life support and shields. I would not be surprised if this eventually translates into high-tech medical supplies which the crew haven't found yet. Which brings me to my next point:

The Island/Destiny as an additional character. In LOST Locke is the first person to start talking about the Island as a person itself. This starts catching on through the series. Even Jack starts saying "The Island wants us to go back!" In Stargate Universe, Rush seems to treat the Destiny as a person rather than a ship. In the very beginning, we see the Destiny dropping out of FTL because it detects an incoming wormhole and turning on life support systems and power in preparation of guests. Detecting a problem with air filtration, it immediately navigates to a solar system with the right supplies to fix it. Detecting a serious drop in power levels, it finds the nearest star and uses it to replenish its reserves. The Island is alive. The Destiny is alive. Trust the Island, trust the Destiny.

History drives the present. Both LOST and Stargate Universe have an extensive back-story not only for the main plot, but for each character. And these stories are what drive the characters in their current plight. The Others lived on the Island far longer than we can know. The Ancients built the Destiny hundreds of thousands of years ago. Each of the survivors of Oceanic 815 have in-depth histories that color their relationships with each other on the Island. While we still haven't learned all of them, each of the survivors of the Icarus incident have in-depth histories that color their relationships with each other on the Destiny.

Secrets and mind games. I don't know about you, but to me Rush = Ben Linus. We may not have met Benjamin in LOST until a few episodes in, but make no mistake he holds scary similarities to SGU's favorite scientist. Both of them have an ego the size of the thing on which they're stuck, both of them have brains to match their ego, both of them have to be in control, and I suspect that both of them have a similar history to their respective homes. Ben lived on the Island for almost his whole life. He knows it inside and out and uses this knowledge to his advantage. In the same way, we see Rush using knowledge to his advantage on the Destiny. Knowledge that it's almost impossible for him to have. What is Rush's history with the Destiny? What has he been studying and where?? Did Rush... used to be ascended? That might be going a little too far, but there is something going on with Rush's knowledge of the Destiny and some reason he's not telling everyone else about it. This is what keeps me glued to this character. And what kept me glued to Benjamin Linus.

I'm sure I'm not the first one to make this connection, but it sure is awfully fun to speculate. It makes you feel like if you know LOST well enough, perhaps you can predict the outcome of Stargate Universe. This is probably the farthest thing from the truth, but we'll see. And our eyes will be wide open when we do.

Comments

I found this kink by searching "similarities between lost and stargate." So i totally agree. Funny thing is just recently getting into the whole stargate thing, i was convinced that Lost must have gotten alot of inspiration from sg-1 and some of atlantis. When i finally got up to SGU i noticed a drastic difference in that how and the previous two. Somewhere around the tenth episode i started thinking they switched sides and stargate got inspiration for SGU from LOST. Im only on episode 14 now but i think i found my "new lost." Even better, i know from watching sg-1 and atlantis, that details in SGU will have ALOT more follow-through than Lost ever did. BTW...there's quite a few references i didn't mention that i also caught such as the #' 23 and 42. 42 being the answer to life, the unviverse and everything =)

I was actually one of the few who were pleasantly satisfied with the ending of Lost. To be honest, I was never really looking for many of the answers that people thought were important. What's more important to me is the personal story arcs between the characters and how the events on the Island shaped them. The same is true with SGU, to some extent. There's no way they can end the series without a better history of the Destny, but think about it: it's been years since the last episode of SG-1 and we still don't really have a clear history of the Ancients. I'm fine if it stays that way, as long as the characters we know come to a meaningful conclusion in their lives.

I one hundred percent agree. I started watching Stargate Universe earlier this week. I was initially unsure about it, but then I was also unsure about Atlantis. However I've over the last four months watched Stargate SG1, Atlantis and just starting / finishing in the next day finishing Universe. I have seen similarities between Lost and Universe. Exciting stuff.

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